Newsmax: 50 Years Later, 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' Is Still A Hit

Wednesday, 31 Dec 2014 04:22 PM

By John Gizzi

One little-noticed 50th anniversary date in 2014 was that of September 22. In 1964, that was the date of the premiere of NBC's "The Man From U.N.C.L.E," the series that brought the secret agent craze of the mid-1960's to the small screen.

A half-a-century later, the super-secret spying-for-good United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) lives on among a new generation of fans who watched its four seasons and 105 episodes on YouTube.

With eight motion pictures made of past episodes of the series, Hollywood is now in the process of casting a new film version of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." with Tom Cruise originally cast as American agent Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer as his Russian partner Illya Kuryakin. (Earlier this year, Cruise left the project, leaving producers of "U.N.C.L.E." in search of a new Solo).

In its heyday, U.N.C.L.E. spawned board games, novels, comic books and various imitations. A sister series, "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." came later, and the bag and container Glad was pitched by (you guessed it!) "The Man From GLAD." 

As former George W. Bush White House speechwriter and "Investors Business Daily" columnist Tom McArdle recalled: "I grew up knowing who Napoleon Solo was before I knew who Napoleon Bonaparte was."

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